South Park is a highly successful cartoon that uses irreverent jokes and crude humor to entertain its audience. That’s pretty much understood at this point, but the show’s decision to make a few jokes regarding the Jerry Sandusky-Penn State scandal managed to cross lines that should never be broken.
“Now it says here that your mother was operating a meth lab,” a social worker told Cartman in Wednesday night’s episode. “And it also says here that Penn State prefers to be losing at halftime, because at Penn State, they like when you’re a little behind in the locker room. That’s a joke, did you get that one? It’s a play on words, we like to have fun here.”
Later in the episode, three children met with the same social worker, whose job was to place them in a foster home.
“Now,” the social worker told the kids, “I’ve been looking over your file, and I see you kids have all been horribly, physically and emotionally abused. Oh, whoops — that isn’t your case file. It’s the Penn State University Gazette! Haha, I’m joking. That’s just a joke. We like to have fun here. It is your case file, I was just like, ‘It’s the Penn State Gazette!’ to be like a joke. We have fun here.”
So much fun. There was more, and it was worse.
“Now listen,” the social worker told the kids. “You’re going to be put into a foster home, so would you like to go to Neverland Ranch, the Catholic church or Penn State University? [Laughs] We’re having fun here, aren’t we?”
The jokes were tasteless on purpose, as they weren’t met with laughter or acceptance from any characters on the show, despite the social worker’s insistence on them being funny. However, the fact that the jokes were in the show to begin with, particularly the “little behind in the locker room” one, is disgusting. The show can make fun of celebrities, politicians and anyone else in the news, but shouldn’t the underage victims of rape be off limits?
Photo of the day
What’s your take on South Park‘s making light of the Penn State scandal?
Quote of the day
“[Mike McQueary]Â didn’t come to State College police. … We’ve had no reports [of Jerry Sandusky sexually abusing someone] from anybody.”
–State College police chief Tom King, denying McQueary’s claim that he reported Sandusky’s alleged rape to police
Tweet of the day
If Ron Gronkowski were to include his friend BiBi Jones, the raffle might draw even more interest.
Video of the day
Ilya Kovalchuk played his first game in nearly two weeks on Wednesday night. He reminded everyone that he’s pretty good at ice hockey.
